African National Congress (ANC) branches in the eThekwini region have marched to the party’s provincial offices in Durban, to demand that the provincial elective conference proceed as planned before June.
The conference had been expected to be held before the end of April. However, it was postponed indefinitely earlier this month due to some members’ complaints about processes leading up to the conference.
In a memorandum of grievances, the marchers say they do not want interim structures.
Representative of the marching members Mzwamuhle Dube says, “They come to us to say they have the road map that seeks to suggest that in the suspension of the provincial executive committee. We are going to install a provincial interim committee that will only serve to prepare branches to go to the conference and until today we have not received a communiqué that seeks to say when are we sitting for the conference instead we have been receiving letter suggesting that it has been suspended indefinitely which is a very long time. We are saying before the beginning of June we must have actually done away with the executive conference. Let the next appearance of President Zuma not find us wanting. That is all I’m saying.”
Meanwhile, Dube says more than 70% of the branches are ready for the conference.
“In terms of our constitution it is very clear at least you must have 70% for any conference to sit. Currently we have exceeded that percentage. It is therefore not justifiable for anyone to say that the branches are not ready which branches are you referring to. We are the branches those letters we wrote as branches that have executive authority to say we want our conference as per the road map that was communicated to us.”
